The NPS has started public scoping of the Gravelly Point and Roaches Run EA. The Park Service wants to redesign the areas to make Roaches Run more accessible and to make the Mt Vernon Trail safer with fewer conflicts. The process has been going on since 2008 and the alternatives have been narrowed down to three, with one being the no-build option. Of the two remaining options, Alternative D seems to be the better/more expensive one.

Both options will create a pedestrian trail to Roaches Run from the Crystal City Connector along an abandoned roadbed. This will not be for cycling, but a bike rack will be installed at the intersection of the two trails. Both will include interpretive sites along the MVT, a new waterless bathroom right with a wayside/bike parking node along the trail just north of the bridge over Roaches Run, and Trail/Parkway Safety Enhancements along the Mount Vernon Trail between Gravelly Point and the airport to address safety concerns due to the proximity of the trail to the road. The safety improvements could include reflective line painting on the trail, protective barriers, vegetative barriers to reduce headlight glare and signage and striping to discourage passing, or improve the safety of passing.

Concept D, shown below, also includes a trail realignment in the congested area of Gravelly Point. This includes a new “through-route” constructed to bypass congested area and cross the entrance road mid-block. The current route in the congested area woukd be converted to a pedestrian route, and extended around the east and south sides of the parking lot to the proposed wayside/bike parking node with the Mount Vernon Trail. Cyclists would be discouraged on the pedestrian path. Concept D would instead widen the existing trail from the parking lot to the turn north.

GWMP will host a Public Meeting on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 from 6:30pm to 8:30pn at Indigo Landing Restaurant on Daingerfield Island. All are encouraged to attend. Comments will be accepted until June 22nd.

Andrew Ferguson at Time does not care for the young people in DC or for their bike-sharing, which is clearly a sign of their ill-earned affluence. He also doesn't seem to care that much for facts. He writes: "Bike-share racks have sprung up downtown and in the close-in suburbs to take advantage of the newly painted bike lanes that have squeezed grand thoroughfares like 14th Street down to two lanes." Now we can argue about whether or not 14th street is a "grand thoroughfare" but nowhere am I aware of 14th Street being squeezed down to 2 lanes by bike lanes.

More on CaBi's April statistics. Tpbpd were up to 4.5 from 3.7 last year. And there were 196, 800 miles ridden, also a new record for one month.

David Byrne writes about the coming of bike-sharing in NYC, and a GWU professor writes about how bikable, walkable neighborhoods are desirable. "People are clearly willing to pay more for homes that allow them to walk rather than drive. Biking is part of the picture, too. Biking and walking are part of a “complete streets” strategy that public rights of way should be for all of society — not just cars."

In October they closed a section of the NW Branch trail just east of Route 1 in Hyattsville as part of an effort to change a basketball court into a skateboard park. Lat week they repaved that section and reopened it.

"The pinnacle of Tour de Fat is the ceremonious car-for-bike swap. At each of the 15 Tour de Fat stops, one person will become the center of the show as he or she gets up on stage, hands over their car keys, and pledges to live one year car-free. Tour de Fat is now seeking volunteers in Washington, DC to accept the swapper challenge. Each car-for-bike swapper will choose a local bike shop to help turn a $2,250 budget into an ultimate car-replacement commuter bike. Vehicles for Charity will auction the cars, with proceeds benefiting local cycling organizations." Click here to find out how to apply.

I missed reporting on this. There was a meeting this past week on the Parkside bike/pedestrian bridge. This project will replace a bridge over DC-295 and tunnel under the railroad tracks with one more direct bridge. "Currently under design, the bridge will be 400-feet-long with three spans, arches at each end, a metal roof, and a 10-foot-wide concrete deck. Sides of the bridge will be enclosed with fencing to prevent the throwing of objects onto the roadway or tracks below."

More on the Pettigrew verdict: Littleford testified in court she was driving down southbound Route 202 from a friend’s home after a cabaret when something struck her Cadillac Escalade. “Why wouldn’t she stop if she knew?” Vallario said. “[She had] no impairment, no drinking, no problems.” “I pulled over to stop,” Littleford said. “I looked outside my vehicle. I didn’t feel anything.”

The recent story of the bike that was recovered after 43 years led NPR to link to this story, which reminds me of this advertisement. [My ad/jingle writing best friend from college asked me recently to quickly name the best ad I'd ever seen, and I blurted out this one.]

Photo by Rootchopper who writes "The crew working on the renovation of Jones Point Park chose Bike to Work Day to install a new detour at the southern end of the Wilson Bridge underpass on the Mount Vernon Trail. The "S" curve and dirt and gravel transitions at the bottom of a hill were a particularly thoughtful."

Tales from the Sharrows explains why biking is not allowed on the Navy Yard Promenade. There is a narrow bridge at one point and "Employees exiting through turnstiles onto the Riverwalk will not have immediate situational awareness of their surroundings, and may not see oncoming vehicular traffic in time to avoid a collision....This is an obvious safety concern as collisions would be unavoidable." This is followed by a pretty hilarious take down, including the notation that on the other side of the fence is a parking lot. "A parking lot. With cars driving. Apparently disoriented Navy employees are well equipped to deal with the potential hazards of motorized, multi-ton vehicles."

Littleford testified that she was coming back from a friend’s home that morning when something seemed to strike her vehicle, so she pulled over and looked out her window.

When she did not see anything, she resumed driving, Littleford testified. She said she stopped once more because her SUV was stalling, but she never got out of the vehicle or called 911. She said she knew that she had been in a crash, but she did not know with what. “I didn’t see anything,” she said.

But the jury was not convinced and it didn't take them long to reach a verdict

After deliberating for about 90 minutes, jurors in Prince George’s County Circuit Court convicted Littleford of the four most serious charges. They found her not guilty of a minor traffic charge for failing to control her speed at the time of the crash.

Littleford was found guilty of: Failure to remain at the scene of an accident that resulted in bodily harm; failure to remain at the scene of an accident that resulted in death; failure to render assistance and negligent driving. She was found not guilty of failure to control her speed to avoid a collision

Littleford is scheduled to be sentenced in August and could face up to ten years in prison.

Alexandria City Council voted to use unspent transportation improvement funds to cover the first-year operation costs of CaBi after the Federal Highway Administration announced in April that certain federal funds could not be used for operating expenses associated with bike-share programs. This led to a discussion about station placement - cluster them or spread them out? Some wondered if a station in Del Ray made sense.

Central Avenue in Capitol Heights could become bike friendly. "Long-term solutions with no projected start date include turning Central Avenue into a “complete street” that would reduce the three lanes on both sides to two, add bicycle lanes and landscaping, said Carol Kachadoorian of Silver Spring-based Toole Design Group."